To ask how much disposable income you give yourself each week?

[m1ssB]

Just interested in other responses. At the moment I don't know if I'm giving myself too much/too little to spend on myself each week so want to see what others say..

Please share

@poshme can't speak for others but I tend to eat out a lot which comes from the personal pot

I go out with friends for lunches and dinners about 2-3 times a week and out with the family the same tbh

Amazon orders also make up a large chunk of the weekly pocket money spend (I am however close to deleting the app as my online spending has gone ott since being wfh)

Then the rest is hair cuts, laser hair removal which is monthly atm, clothes, shoes, bits I want for the house etc.

About £100 a week.

Normally spend that on treats for us as a family like chocolate/sweets/takeaway at the weekends, I spend more than I should in B&M and Home Bargains on stuff I prob don't need, new clothes, gifts for birthdays etc. The odd night out, lunch out with friends etc.

@dwiz8 I suppose eating out a lot would use up a big chunk.

We don't eat out a lot- though I know my food bill is relatively high as if I want something nice (like steak & wine) I buy it.

OH and I both have £100 each a week , managed to save most of it over lock down and I've decided to continue not spending it all.

We put both of our incomes into 1 account and when we get paid I leave enough in the account to cover all the bills including food and I usually leave us around £200 per week on top for other bits (sounds a lot but goes very quickly with family birthdays, kids clubs etc). Whatever is left over gets put into our savings - I try and put away as much as I can each month without leaving us short as I find if it's left in the main account it easily gets eaten away at. Our savings account can be accessed by online banking so we can just transfer money to and from the savings as and when we need them. I've found that I'm a lot more cautious about what I'm spending when I have less in the main account

About 400/500 a week don’t spend all of that though sometimes more sometimes less

I allocate £100 a week, half of what I am saving a week. That's obviously over the top though. I am pretty appalled by my own spending and wastefulness.

Don’t allocate money, we know we have a lifestyle that is affordable and so base spending on that

Before coronavirus and maternity pay drying up I’d withdraw £50 every Friday for day to day expenses. I’d try not to spend over that but if I wanted clothes or had nights out etc that obviously wouldn’t come out of that budget. I liked taking the cash out as it was so much easier to keep tabs on.

@poshme My disposable income (pre Covid) would go on impromptu trips away, perhaps a nice dress or pair of shoes, a piece of jewellery or picture for home, that sort of thing. We used to eat out at least three times a week and that was just factored in to the cost of food.

Things like holidays/hair cuts/normal clothes allowance etc would just come out of my normal bills or easy access savings account.

There’s always a huge disparity on threads like these but like someone else up thread (sorry, I can’t remember who) I don’t think it’s a bad thing to lift the veil re income (particularly when it is women earning the income).

I budget around £1k a month for all spends on the credit card, this includes food and petrol. So around £500 for everything else between DH and I. This month will be higher due to school uniforms.

It should be about £175 after food, petrol and xmas savings but it never seems to work like that and usually more like £100...we always spend all of that, it goes nowhere.

excluding food?

The people who spend £500 a week ish on themselves - what the fuck are they buying?

Surly it depend? I mean you don't just go and spend money just because you have it allocated.

I take this approach, some weeks I may spend £20 (excluding food), other weeks £600. It depends on what I need to buy & what plans I have.

I don't calculate it weekly. I have about £500 a month to cover my social life and shopping, friends ' birthday presents and any trips away with friends.

However sometimes if we have a lot of household expenses, I move money into the joint account.

@LongPauseNoReply how much do you put into savings?

I don't set a limit but equally I try not to go wild. Couple of hundred a week I guess.

The honest answer is that I can spend what I need to. I've saved nearly 2 years salary and got my mortgage very low which has taken the pressure right off.

My outgoings are about a quarter of my incomings so one week it might be £50 total, another it might be £500. That would be because of something like a spend towards furniture or a holiday.

@fishonabicycle

The people who spend £500 a week ish on themselves - what the fuck are they buying?

Dinner/lunch/coffee out. Hair Lashes Nails Drinks out It all adds up but sometimes it will be less in a week sometimes more- depends what’s going on that week. Dinner out with friends is £50-70 If you see 3 groups of friends in a week it all adds up.

Really- those who spend that much- what do you spend it on?

I don't spend that much weekly but my hair costs £170 & I will pay £200-£300 for an item of clothing or shoes if I really want it.

We transfer ourselves £70 a week to our personal accounts from the joint. This doesn't include food but we are supposed to use it for petrol so some weeks it can be tight.

It really depends on what you mean by disposable spends.

After we, as a family, have paid all bills, we have £large amount left.

We then put £large amount into various savings accounts and investments for each of us solely, joint accounts and accounts for our children. This is about 80% of our income, and I suppose is technically "disposable", but we don't really see it as such.

We then spend £very comfortable amount for stuff relating to the family - days out/eating out/bits and bobs/stuff for the house/general family spends.

DH and I give ourselves £100 a month each for "personal spends". It's a small amount because we literally have virtually no "personal" costs, as pretty much everything we do is family related. Essentials such as dental/optical/clothes/haircuts etc would come out of the family spends account. Really, its for buying each other presents so that they don't show up on the joint account, and so that we both have a current account in our own names just in case we need it for some reason (bank accounts frozen due to fraud etc is what we were thinking, not that it has ever happened.)

This is an unanswerable question really, as what counts as "disposable" varies from family to family, and what amount is "personal" will also vary from family to family.

@fishonabicycle

The people who spend £500 a week ish on themselves - what the fuck are they buying?

Lunch / dinner out a few times each week. A massage every other week. Books, clothes, face creams etc whenever the urge is there. Sometimes I'll spend just £80 or so, others about £400. I know I'm very fortunate to be in this position and I also save heavily.

about £700 - £900 a month at the moment depending on if ive been careful with my food bill